Tom Nicholson and Laura Tse Massey University Auckland Email: [email protected]

Tom Nicholson and Laura Tse 1

Teaching phonics more effectively in shared book and guided reading lessons: What to

do and how to do it

Tom Nicholson and Laura Tse

Massey University Auckland

Email:

[email protected]


Presentation Overview

1. A research study: Which is better, shared book, phonics, or a combination?

2. How to become well informed about phonics. Learning some useful phonics rules.

3. The tricky bit: How to use phonics in shared book and guided reading

4. Deciding on phonics activities that are appropriate to the different levels of the Ready to Read colour wheel

5. Discussion activities


Research study comparing phonics and shared book

Laura Tse – PhD study 2007 – still in progress

• A pre-post experimental study• 6-year-olds• High, middle and low progress readers• Teaching in small groups of 4• Children randomly assigned to 4 teaching

conditions(1) Phonics (2) Shared book(3) Combined (4)Control group-Maths


Reading levels and the colour wheel

Reading Level Colour Reading Recovery

5-5½ Magenta 0,1,2

Red 3,4,5

Yellow 6,7,8

5½ - 6 Dark blue 9,10,11

Green 12,13,14

6-6½ Orange 15,16

6½ - 7 Light blue/Turquoise 17,18

7 – 7½ Purple 19,20

7½ - 8 Dark yellow/gold 21,22

8-8 ½ Emerald/Silver 23,24

8 ½ - 9 White 25,26


Reading levels for older pupils

Reading Level School Journals

8-8½ Part 1

8½ - 9 Parts 1-3

10-11 Part 4

Note: Junior Journals are supposed to be from 6-8 years


Phonics QuizReference: Nicholson article in Set: Research Information for Teachers, No.2, , 2007, pp.

29-34

1. Underline the consonant blends:doubt, known, first, pumpkin, squark, scratch2. Underline the consonant digraphs:wholesale, psychic, doubt, wrap, daughter, think3. When is a “ck” used in spelling?4. What letters signal that a “g” is pronounced /j/?5. List all the ways you can think of to spell the “long a” sound.6. List all the ways you can think of to spell the /k/ sound?.7. What are the six common syllable types in English?8. When adding a suffix to a word ending in “y”, what is the rule?9. How can you recognise a word of Greek origin?10. Account for the double “m” in comment or commitment.


Anglo-Saxon spelling patternsReference: Nicholson, T. (2005), Phonics handbook. Chichester, England: Wiley & Sons.

CONSONANTS

Single Blends Digraphs

b, d, f, g, h, j, etc .

(except c, g, s)

clap, frog, stand, etc. that, chin, ship, which

VOWELS

Short-Long r- and l-controlled Vowel Digraphs

mat-mate

hop-hope

rip – ripe

pet – Pete

cut – cute

ar – car al - call

or – for

ur – surf

ir – bird

er - her

ai/ay -sail, say

ee– meet, seem

ie – piece, thief

oi/oy – boil, boy

oa -boat

au/aw – sauce/law

ew – new etc.


Can you count the number of syllables and morphemes in these words?

Reference: Nicholson article in Set: Research Information for Teachers, No.2, , 2007, pp. 29-34

Syllables (units of sound)

Morphemes (prefix -root word – suffix)

salamander

crocodile

attached

unbelievable

finger

pies

gardener

psychometrics


Elements of English spelling Reference: Nicholson, T. (2005), Phonics handbook. Chichester, England: Wiley & Sons.

Letter-Sound patterns

Syllable Patterns Morpheme Patterns

Anglo Saxon cap stand that

pin/pine

car

beat

tennis sister napkin hundred

railroad pigtails

like/unlike/likely

Romance direction

spatial

excellent

inter-

intro-

-ity

prediction disruptive admission

Greek physics

chemist

auto-

micro-

microscope chronometer physiology


Syllable rules 1-2

Closed syllable

VC/CV – e.g.,

Rabbit

Cotton

Happen

Channel

blanket

Open syllable

V/CV – e.g.,

Robot

Cucumber

Dining

Pilot

But

Camel

seven

Vanish


Syllable rules 3-4

Silent e pattern

e.g.,

Teenage

Deride

Illustrate

r-affected vowel pattern

e.g.,

Artist

Turnip

Orchard

Thirteen


Syllable rules 5-6

Vowel teams pattern

e.g.,

Release

Awful

Treatment

Painter

Voucher

-LE pattern

e.g.,

bubble

Bangle

Cattle

Stable

Ripple

Staple


Reference: Nicholson, T. (2005), Phonics handbook. Chichester, England: Wiley & Sons.


Reference: Nicholson, T. (2005), Phonics handbook. Chichester, England: Wiley & Sons.


The tricky bit: combining phonics with shared book

Reading Level

Colour Phonics patterns

5-5½ Magenta Knows the alphabet

Red Has phoneme awareness

Yellow Can read VC and CVC words

5½ - 6 Dark blue Knows 100 frequent sight words

Green

6-6½ Orange Knows consonant blends and digraphs

6½ - 7 Light blue/Turquoise Knows silent e rule, doubling rule, r- and l-affected vowels.

7 – 7½ Purple Knows 1-sound vowel digraphs

7½ - 8 Dark yellow/gold Knows 2-sound vowel digraphs

8-8 ½ Emerald/Silver, Pt 1 Journals

Can read compound words, knows Greek spelling patterns

8 ½ - 9 White, Pt 1-3 Journals Knows the 6 syllable rules, knows silent letters

9 and above Part 4 Journals Knows Latin prefix and suffix patterns, can read Greek words


5-5½ Magenta – Bubbles

• Alphabet letters: bHigh frequency words: my, up, the, down, over

• CVC patterns: pop (hop, top), hog (dog, log)


5-5½ Magenta Old Tuatara

VC and CVC patterns: in, sat, sun, notHigh frequency words: the, said

Old tuatara sat in the sun.He sat and sat and sat.“Asleep,” said the fantail.“Asleep,” said the gull.“Asleep,” said the frog.“Asleep,” said the fly.“Not asleep,” said Old Tuatara.


Title - No, Skipper!5½ - 6 Green –What to do?

The focus could be on a higher level of phonics:Teach the ai-ay pattern (e.g., train)Teach silent e pattern (e.g., side)

Skipper was an outside dog.But sometimes Skipper wanted to be an inside dog.He wanted to eat the scrapsThat fell from Sophie’s high chair (NB: -air in “chair” is not ai pattern)“No!” said Mum. She pointedTo the door. “Outside, Skipper!”He wanted to chase Greg’s toy train.…One day the rain came down.It rained and rained and didn’t stop...And his kennel beside the deck was floating away.…In came Skipper, wagging his wet tail…


Title: Greedy Cat’s Door

• 5½-6 Blue – what to do?

• Supposed to be just VC and CVC at this stage - in, it, cat, ran, leg, Dad, big, had, Mum, pop,

• But could go to consonant blends - maybe look at gr-greedy, fr-front, cr-cried, st-stomped, gr-gravy


Title: The hole in the king’s sock

• Orange on the colour wheel

• 6-6½ year level

• Suggest focus on consonant blends and digraphs

• Could focus on –ck (“sock”, “sticky”, “prickly”, “click”)

• And –tch (“stitch”) digraphs


Is this an earthquake?

• 6-6½ year level• Orange on the colour wheel• Suggested focus: The doubling rule: two consonants after the vowel

signals the short vowel sound; one consonant signals the long vowel sound

• Extract from story:“Mum, I can feel our house shaking. Is that an earthquake?”“No, that’s just a truck, a big logging truck,Rumbling and grumbling,Shaking our house.”…Jumping and bumpingTrundling and rumbling…“Is that an earthquake?”“No, that’s the wind,Howling and growling,Squeaking and creaking,Blowing our house.”


The great grumbler and the wonder tree

• 7½ - 8 years• Dark yellow/gold on the colour wheel• Suggested focus: 2-sound vowel digraphs (oo, ou), doubling

rule (dinner, etc)

Extract from the story …One day Mr Finch looked at his dinner and sighed.“Oh dear! Mashed potato and gravy!” he said“I grew those potatoes in my own garden,” said Mrs Finch.“Well I don’t like to grumble,”said Mr Finch grumbling,“but I do wish you had grown pumpkins.I would have loved some pumpkin soup.”


Part 4 journals Age 10-11 yearsTitle: Sister, soldier - Part 4 Journal, No. 1, pp. 30-36

Latin word endings – “tion” e.g., ammunition, examination “ment” e.g., advertisement, arrangement, “ence” e.g., intelligence


Conclusion1. Our research suggests that it is best to combine the teaching of

phonics with shared book teaching2. You can teach phonics in a shared book lesson but to get the

rules in sequence you need to teach them separately as a short lesson and then apply them to reading in shared book lessons: i.e., teach phonics as a mini-lesson and then look for examples of the phonics rule in the shared book

3. Shared book is a great way to revise phonics rules: you can highlight phonics rules as the text features of the shared book (see Ministry of Education folder of Ready to Read notes for some suggestions on teaching phonics)

4. Keep a small list of useful phonics rules that you can highlight whenever you take a shared book lesson

5. Try to highlight phonics rules that are appropriate for the reading level of the children you teach, not too hard or too easy


References

• Learning Media (2007). Ready to Read. Teacher support material. Wellington: Author.

• Nicholson, T. (2007). “How many sounds in ox?” Set: Research Information for Teachers, No.2, pp. 29-34

• Nicholson, T. (2006), Phonics handbook. Chichester, England: Wiley & Sons.

• Nicholson, T. (2005). At the cutting edge. The importance of phonemic awareness in learning to read and spell. Wellington: New Zealand Council fro Educational Research.

Documents

Tom Nicholson and Laura Tse Massey University Auckland Email: [email protected]